Can Christians Fear Death?

Watching La Vie En Rose, one can not help but think on what this life is for, death and the like. Myself, I don't require much coaxing; as a writer with a sometimes overwhelming imagination, I never really got over Final Destination.

Depending on how much of a rat's tucchus you care about statistics, something like 68% of people fear death. It makes sense we don't want to talk about it. I even heard a recent NPR story where there were groups starting around the country (and world) for that very reason: to air out the difficult topic, to put words to the great fear, which can seem like it's all around us.

Ever Consider This?

1. You're feeling abnormally confident in your ability to manipulate water, so you jump off the diving board, and into the deep end of the pool/lake/ocean...and drown.
2. You're driving your car speedily on the highway, when a semi somehow cuts you off, perhaps it's carrying bricks, or logs, or cars, but somehow one gets loose and...you're smashed in seconds.
3. Maybe you're waiting for some ne'er-do-well to slit your throat while napping in your sedan
4. Maybe the ne'er-do-well just stabs, and/or shoots you on the street for money, perhaps to feed a drug habit...

This could go on for hours, until you work yourself into an amazing frenzy and anxiety. Let me ask; do the above frighten you? Are you unable to read any longer?

Folks hate to talk about death, like it's not coming, like it's not inevitable, but to avoid it is to fear it. And I do sometimes, more so lately, though this is all do to wrong thinking.

If the possibility of becoming a cadaver scares you, that's it, you're thinking of becoming some neglected cadaver with worms eating you. Wrong. That would be the same thing as imagining yourself like a snoring, drooling, rambunctious mess while you're asleep, which is what death is in light of Christ.

Acts 13:36: “For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers”

Jesus used the same terminology. In John 11:11 he says, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep...”

Sleep. The thing we each do every night, most more than I. Sleep, the definition of which is to enter a state of unconsciousness without being aware.

None of us actually start sleep, we simply stop impeding it, and allow the process to take place. Our hope is that our tired bodies will do what is best for them: to rest for a better life tomorrow. This is what Jesus desires to do for each and every single one of us: grant us rest.

"Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.”

Matthew 11:28

Now, it'd be stupid to argue that what Jesus wants is for you to die, that's just bad theology, since he talks a great deal about giving life...But in the end of our run, I believe he no longer desires us to struggle, and he wishes to grant our over-worked bodies rest.

That's all death can ever be for the Christian: sleep, and a sweet sleep at that.

Of course, we can argue there's more: crowns, and thrones, and mansions, and a beautiful New City called Jerusalem (and I'm right there with you), but isn't complete rest what we really long for?

I'm starting to think it sweet: that all those days being terrorized by an alarm clock can be replaced with an easy, delicate rest uninterrupted.

What do you think?